altlovesbooks
Holy cow was this a slog to get through.
Ivy Radcliffe inherits Blackwood Abbey from a rather distant and unknown relative's death. She claims her property, moves in, and finds that the abbey itself is rather run-down, the staff is a bit standoffish, and the surrounding area bleak and uninviting. Nevertheless, she has an amazing library now, but everytime she spends any length of time within it, she comes out with headaches. Dizzy spells. Weird memory loss. She ignores warnings from, well, basically everyone, keeps mucking about in the library, and in true FAFO fashion, Finds Out that there's supernatural forces afoot amongst the books.
I feel like the author was trying to make Ivy out to be some sort of strong, independent woman in WWI-era England, but never really nailed the execution. Lots of things happen to Ivy, but she never really seems to take charge of anything to solve things. Her plans seem to amount to "bumble around until Ralph swoops in to rescue me", or get captured because Ralph wasn't able to swoop in and (immediately) rescue her, because that comes later. Between that and the constant memory loss plot crutch, it got rather repetitive by the end.
Btw, guys don't smell like woodsmoke and leather. Not even Ralph.
Holy cow was this a slog to get through.
Ivy Radcliffe inherits Blackwood Abbey from a rather distant and unknown relative's death. She claims her property, moves in, and finds that the abbey itself is rather run-down, the staff is a bit standoffish, and the surrounding area bleak and uninviting. Nevertheless, she has an amazing library now, but everytime she spends any length of time within it, she comes out with headaches. Dizzy spells. Weird memory loss. She ignores warnings from, well, basically everyone, keeps mucking about in the library, and in true FAFO fashion, Finds Out that there's supernatural forces afoot amongst the books.
I feel like the author was trying to make Ivy out to be some sort of strong, independent woman in WWI-era England, but never really nailed the execution. Lots of things happen to Ivy, but she never really seems to take charge of anything to solve things. Her plans seem to amount to "bumble around until Ralph swoops in to rescue me", or get captured because Ralph wasn't able to swoop in and (immediately) rescue her, because that comes later. Between that and the constant memory loss plot crutch, it got rather repetitive by the end.
Btw, guys don't smell like woodsmoke and leather. Not even Ralph.
"The debts of the father must be paid."
Okay, now that the first book laid the groundwork for the new story after a lot of infodumping and "as you know" character conversations, I’m extremely pleased with book two. The two points of view from the first book are back here, with Olive Paper working her way through her own identity issues and stepping out from behind her family’s legacy and Darin Bales coming to terms with his own weaknesses and working to overcome them. It was great seeing them come together as unique characters and not just existing by merit of being the children of great people.
Really no complaints about this one, it hits all the same high notes from the first series with a new cast of characters that tackles things their own way. Olive Paper was far and away my favorite viewpoint of the two here, but I also enjoyed Darin’s interactions with his friends and how he leverages the powers he struggles to control in taking care of those around him.
Can’t wait for the next book!
"The debts of the father must be paid."
Okay, now that the first book laid the groundwork for the new story after a lot of infodumping and "as you know" character conversations, I’m extremely pleased with book two. The two points of view from the first book are back here, with Olive Paper working her way through her own identity issues and stepping out from behind her family’s legacy and Darin Bales coming to terms with his own weaknesses and working to overcome them. It was great seeing them come together as unique characters and not just existing by merit of being the children of great people.
Really no complaints about this one, it hits all the same high notes from the first series with a new cast of characters that tackles things their own way. Olive Paper was far and away my favorite viewpoint of the two here, but I also enjoyed Darin’s interactions with his friends and how he leverages the powers he struggles to control in taking care of those around him.
Can’t wait for the next book!
100 pages in of a 256 page book and we still haven't gotten to the actual shipwreck. That tells me there's very little shipwreck in my shipwreck book, and I'm kind of bored reading about sailing minutiae and personality conflicts.
100 pages in of a 256 page book and we still haven't gotten to the actual shipwreck. That tells me there's very little shipwreck in my shipwreck book, and I'm kind of bored reading about sailing minutiae and personality conflicts.
Maybe not for everyone, but I enjoyed this book. It's like a slice of life look into the lead up to and aftermath of an apocalyptic event. The point of view hops around a bit so it can be disorienting for people expecting linear stories, but I enjoyed piecing things together. There aren't so many characters that you lose track of what's going on, and things still seem to progress at a steady pace. It's like if The Stand had better pacing.
Maybe not for everyone, but I enjoyed this book. It's like a slice of life look into the lead up to and aftermath of an apocalyptic event. The point of view hops around a bit so it can be disorienting for people expecting linear stories, but I enjoyed piecing things together. There aren't so many characters that you lose track of what's going on, and things still seem to progress at a steady pace. It's like if The Stand had better pacing.
DNF, this would probably be better off titled "The Book at (World) War (II)", because at least within the first 100 pages, we only really read about a sliver of historical wars, and then a large swath of World War II. I also feel like this is a series of dry factoids in search of a premise. The information presented didn't feel very cohesive, and it was difficult to figure out where things were going and how it related to the title/summary of what I thought I was getting into.
I like the cover art though. I have a reproduction of this particular image on my wall at home (sans book info, of course). The original can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709066/
DNF, this would probably be better off titled "The Book at (World) War (II)", because at least within the first 100 pages, we only really read about a sliver of historical wars, and then a large swath of World War II. I also feel like this is a series of dry factoids in search of a premise. The information presented didn't feel very cohesive, and it was difficult to figure out where things were going and how it related to the title/summary of what I thought I was getting into.
I like the cover art though. I have a reproduction of this particular image on my wall at home (sans book info, of course). The original can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709066/
A historical fiction book about The Wizard of Oz? Sure, sign me up. Sounds delightfully offbeat. Except that it kind of wasn’t and felt a little bland.
This book uses two points in time to tell its story: First, Maud Baum in 1939 trying her best to see her late husband’s creation done justice on the big screen. But to her that seems to mean word-for-word, scene-for-scene, authentic to the book, when this movie was intended to be a technicolor wonder for the masses. She also disagrees with the casting of Dorothy, and has to work through her hangups about both the movie and the actress to see both done right. Interspersed with this tale from Hollywood is Maud’s own life story about how she met Frank, how their whirlwind (heehee) romance led her down some unexpected and rocky paths, and how their experiences, highs, and lows translated into the book that Frank Baum is known for.
I just….wish I liked this book more. I tried very hard to like it since I have friends and family that all highly recommended it, but I kind of thought it was boring. Maud doesn’t seem to have a very likeable personality, either in old Maud being a seemingly stubborn curmudgeon on set to everyone around her about what Frank would have wanted, or in young Maud finding fault with Frank’s flights of fancy and trying her hardest to step on everything he loved so that they could have a "normal" life together. I thought the bits about Judy’s time on set were interesting (in a depressing child-actress-in-the-1930s sort of way), but there wasn’t a lot of that to build a story off of. And I really felt for Frank trying to make it as a creative type in the 1880s when that sort of profession was frowned up and not considered a respectable line of work. But the rest was kind of a slog to get through, and I didn’t really feel particularly connected with either story being told. It felt like most (all?) of the not-main characters were two dimensional and existed just in name as a placeholder in the story, which made large parts of the book a little hard to get through for me.
Still, it’s fairly highly rated, so if fluffy historical fiction is your thing and you love the Oz movie, give this a go. I found it flat and boring, but I’m also not really into really fluffy books either. YMMV.
A historical fiction book about The Wizard of Oz? Sure, sign me up. Sounds delightfully offbeat. Except that it kind of wasn’t and felt a little bland.
This book uses two points in time to tell its story: First, Maud Baum in 1939 trying her best to see her late husband’s creation done justice on the big screen. But to her that seems to mean word-for-word, scene-for-scene, authentic to the book, when this movie was intended to be a technicolor wonder for the masses. She also disagrees with the casting of Dorothy, and has to work through her hangups about both the movie and the actress to see both done right. Interspersed with this tale from Hollywood is Maud’s own life story about how she met Frank, how their whirlwind (heehee) romance led her down some unexpected and rocky paths, and how their experiences, highs, and lows translated into the book that Frank Baum is known for.
I just….wish I liked this book more. I tried very hard to like it since I have friends and family that all highly recommended it, but I kind of thought it was boring. Maud doesn’t seem to have a very likeable personality, either in old Maud being a seemingly stubborn curmudgeon on set to everyone around her about what Frank would have wanted, or in young Maud finding fault with Frank’s flights of fancy and trying her hardest to step on everything he loved so that they could have a "normal" life together. I thought the bits about Judy’s time on set were interesting (in a depressing child-actress-in-the-1930s sort of way), but there wasn’t a lot of that to build a story off of. And I really felt for Frank trying to make it as a creative type in the 1880s when that sort of profession was frowned up and not considered a respectable line of work. But the rest was kind of a slog to get through, and I didn’t really feel particularly connected with either story being told. It felt like most (all?) of the not-main characters were two dimensional and existed just in name as a placeholder in the story, which made large parts of the book a little hard to get through for me.
Still, it’s fairly highly rated, so if fluffy historical fiction is your thing and you love the Oz movie, give this a go. I found it flat and boring, but I’m also not really into really fluffy books either. YMMV.
Added to listDid Not Finishwith 11 books.
DNF, this would probably be better off titled "The Book at (World) War (II)", because at least within the first 100 pages, we only really read about a sliver of historical wars, and then a large swath of World War II. I also feel like this is a series of dry factoids in search of a premise. The information presented didn't feel very cohesive, and it was difficult to figure out where things were going and how it related to the title/summary of what I thought I was getting into.
I like the cover art though. I have a reproduction of this particular image on my wall at home (sans book info, of course). The original can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709066/
DNF, this would probably be better off titled "The Book at (World) War (II)", because at least within the first 100 pages, we only really read about a sliver of historical wars, and then a large swath of World War II. I also feel like this is a series of dry factoids in search of a premise. The information presented didn't feel very cohesive, and it was difficult to figure out where things were going and how it related to the title/summary of what I thought I was getting into.
I like the cover art though. I have a reproduction of this particular image on my wall at home (sans book info, of course). The original can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709066/